Callaway faced a $15,000 penalty for having allegedly “colluded with a third party, Robyn Lore, to circumvent a contribution limit.” He was also fined $8,000 for allegedly accepting a $60,000 contribution that Callaway knew, or should have known, was from a prohibited person or entity.

A $5,000 fine was issued for knowingly making a false statement on a leadership contestant financial statement filed with Alberta’s chief electoral officer, the commissioner alleged.

He also handed Callaway 21 fines of $2,000, each, for allegedly giving cash to someone, then accepting donations to his campaign for the same amount from the same person, or from a person with the same last name.

On Aug. 2, Callaway filed an application for a judicial review of the penalties, claiming that election commissioner Lorne Gibson “incorrectly” or “unreasonably” exercised his powers. Callaway says the commissioner “demonstrated an abuse of authority” by interfering with the internal matters of a political party prior to an election period.

The documents include a letter sent to Callaway in July by Gibson, who concluded following an investigation “that there is evidence” Callaway acted in a manner “that has contravened” Alberta’s election laws.

“This investigation has identified and verified a number of contributions made to your campaign that have been made unlawfully and in a manner that contravenes the EFCDA,” Gibson wrote.

According to the letter, there had been minimal fundraising by Callaway’s campaign team before September 2017.

At that time, the leadership candidate allegedly told campaign manager Cameron Davies to meet with Lore, Callaway’s friend, and go to the bank together, where Lore would wire a significant amount of money to Davies’ account and then withdraw it.

Lore transferred $60,000 to Davies through a business called Agropyron, of which Lore was the director. Davies, with Lore’s help, then withdrew multiple bank drafts from his account, along with cash, given to him in envelopes.

Callaway then joined the two men at the bank, where Davies handed over the money, to be given to “straw contributors.”

The money was “for individuals who had agreed to make contributions to your campaign using furnished funds,” the commissioner wrote to Callaway.

Contributions to Callaway’s campaign from 17 people, totalling $53,500, were recorded on Sept. 11 and 12, 2017.

Callaway’s campaign funds, which totalled just $4,370.14 on the morning of Sept. 11, ballooned to almost $60,000 in the days that followed, according to the court documents. Leadership contestant fees totalling $57,500 were due by Sept. 12 to remain in the UCP race.

A money order in that amount was withdrawn from Callaway’s campaign bank account and paid to the UCP that day, the documents say.

Alberta laws prohibit corporate donations to leadership contestants. They are also not allowed to take funds from a business or a third-party and donate on their behalf.

But Alberta’s election commissioner wrote that Callaway and Lore “planned and co-ordinated steps to obscure the actual source of the funds furnished to the straw contributors who contributed to (Callaway’s) campaign.”

“The actual source of the funds was Agropyron which, in fact, was a prohibited entity,” Gibson wrote, adding Callaway and Lore took steps to withdraw and disperse the $60,000 in funds “with the intent to circumvent or attempt to circumvent a contribution amount limit.”

“Care and planning were exercised to ensure that no single contributor made a contribution that exceeded the lawful contribution amount limit,” Gibson wrote to Callaway.

“The scheme required you and Lore to plan, prepare, and co-ordinate certain of your activities and activities involving others. Lore’s participation in this scheme was not trivial.”

Callaway’s application for a judicial review is to be heard in court in September 2020.

Gibson’s letter, drafted after conducting interviews and collecting documents throughout the course of his investigation, also detailed a series of meetings which occurred months earlier, in which Callaway allegedly agreed to enter the UCP leadership race as a “kamikaze” candidate.

Former Wildrose president and founding member Jeff Callaway announces his candidacy for the leadership of the United Conservative Party of Alberta at the Winston Golf Club in Calgary on Thursday August 10, 2017.Gavin Young /
Calgary Herald

A group of people, including Callaway, met in July 2017 to discuss the need for somebody to run in the UCP leadership contest as a “‘dark-horse’ or ‘kamikaze’ contestant to target Brian Jean for the benefit of Jason Kenney,” the documents state.

Gibson wrote that campaign staff supporting Kenney, now Alberta’s premier, would direct Callaway’s campaign, its messaging style and debate material, the timing of when Callaway would drop out and “the overall view of what Kenney’s team wanted done.”

The idea was that Callaway would launch verbal attacks against Jean — Kenney’s major rival for the top UCP job — that the now-premier wouldn’t be able to say, himself. Kenney said in March it was clear that’s what Callaway was doing, but denied any involvement in the plan.

Previously published documents show regular communication between Davies and Matt Wolf, Kenney’s then-deputy chief of staff and now executive director of issues management in the premier’s office.

Davies has since been slapped with multiple fines by the election commissioner for his role in the Callaway campaign.

“There were discussions about financing your campaign,” Gibson wrote to Callaway, describing one of the July 2017 meetings.

“There was talk about asking for donations. Individuals present at that meeting told those at the meeting not to worry . . . and that the financing of your leadership campaign would be ‘handled’ or ‘arranged.’”

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